Professor Richard Lilford, CBE FMedSci, DSc (hon), PhD, FRCOG, FRCP, FFPH, FRCGP (hon)

• Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (FRCGP) 2019
• Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (FFPH) 2003
• Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) 1997
• Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) 1996
• Membership of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine (MFPHM) 1995 
• PhD in Medicine July 1984
• Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) 1981
• Member, Royal College of Gynaecologists (MRCOG) 1979
• Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MB BCh) 1973

Born in Cape Town and educated in Johannesburg, Professor Richard Lilford worked in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cape Town, before moving to the UK. Eventually he become Head of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Leeds where he worked for over ten years. He then spent five years as a senior civil servant before moving into academia at the University of Birmingham in 2001, where he had a number of roles including Head of School of Health and Population Sciences, and Vice-Dean for Applied Health Research. In 2014 he moved to a new role as Pro Dean of Research at Warwick Medical School, before returning to Birmingham in late 2019.

Richard is currently Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Centre West Midlands (ARC WM) and the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Improving Health in Slums, Director of NIHR RIGHT: Transforming the Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy and Buruli ulcers in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and Co-director of (NIHR) Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC).  He has published over 400 original research papers, and numerous articles, editorials, chapters and books, and has been profiled in both the BMJ (2016;354:i3776) and Lancet (2017;389(i10068):496). His research interests include the methodology of clinical trials, patient safety, service delivery research, and global health. Richard is member of a number of committees and external bodies, including the What Works Trial Advice Panel for the UK Government Cabinet Office; the NIHR Global Health Research Centre Funding Committee; and the MRC Global Health Faculty of Experts. Successful recent NIHR funded grants Richard has led on include the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre, the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Improving Health in Slums, and the NIHR RIGHT Transforming the Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy and Buruli ulcers in Low and Middle Income countries programme.

Married to a former General Practitioner, father to three children and grandfather to seven, Richard is also a keen tennis player.

Teaching Programmes

• Teaching medical students – whole class lectures on Safety and Quality in Health Care and Health Economics.
• Teacher on the Mini-Medical School course.

• Global health (especially low- and middle-income countries)
• Health Service research
• Research Methods – Bayesian
• Decision analysis
• Health economics (especially service delivery)
• Clinical trials
• Evidence based medicine

Indicators of Esteem:

• Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam. 1996
• Thomas Chalmers Bronze Medal. Cochrane Collaboration Colloquium. 1999
• Honorary Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 2005-2012
• Doctor of Science (Hon) University of Keele. 2014 –
• NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus Status. 2015 –
• Honorary Professor, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 2015 - 
• National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator Award. 2008-2011, 2012-2015
• ACCEA, A Plus Distinction award 2003. Renewed 2007 and 2013. Gold Award 2018.
• Fellow of the United Kingdom Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci, July 2019) 
• Honorary Professor, University of Warwick. 2008-13, 2019 –